Efficient utilization of poultry by-product meal-based diets when fed to giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii

ABSTRACT

Two feeding trials were conducted to investigate the utilization of poultry by-product meal (PBM) in the post-larvae and juveniles of giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii. In experiment 1, five diets were formulated using PBM to replace fish meal protein at 0-100% replacement level at 25% interval. The growth performance was highest in diet with 75% replacement level. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) ranged from 1.52 to 1.88 and survival was fairly high (79.37–83.73%). In experiment 2, seven diets with higher replacement levels of fish meal protein with PBM protein (starting at 75% replacement level) were fed to triplicate groups of the juvenile prawn. The best growth performance was obtained in diet without fishmeal. Meanwhile, survival rate (83.33–89.56%) did not show any significant difference among the treatments. The result showed that high-quality PBM is a good candidate to replace fish meal protein in the diet and its utilization improved with the size of giant freshwater prawn.

KEYWORDS:

• Giant freshwater prawn
• Macrobrachium rosenbergii
• poultry by-product meal
• feed development

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgment is also due to the staff of Shrimp Hatchery of Borneo Marine Research Institute, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, for their assistance during this experiment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Ministry of Education Malaysia under the Potential Higher Institution  Centre of Excellence Program (HICOE 0004, UMS)